"Echo!" Silver-Raven yelled as they entered through the large the castle doors. His voice reverberated off the walls, followed by his childish giggle.
"Grow up." Elentari scolded.
Silver-Raven ignored her and looked around. He frowned as he saw a suit of armour and walked up to it.
"What the hell is that?" Elentari asked, she had never seen, or heard of, a suit of armour before. She and Sora followed Rav to the suit and stood behind him.
"Its one of those old-timey doohickey thingies." Silver-Raven said. Elentari sighed and shook her head.
"Rav, EVERYTHING here is an old-timey doohickey thingy!" She snapped. Silver-Raven rolled his eyes and looked at Sora, who glanced at him and sighed.
"What? Am I supposed to explain everything to you guys?" She asked only to have Elentari and Silver-Raven nod in response. "That is a suit of armour; knights wore it centuries ago in battles to protect themselves."
"Didn't they have shields?" Elentari asked. Sora nodded and pointed to a large shield on the wall.
"Whoa! That's one hell of a generator!" Silver-Raven exclaimed.
"Rav…that is the shield, not the generator. They didn't have that technology back then." Sora explained further. Silver-Raven stared at the shield and nodded slowly before turning back to the female pirates.
"Sucks to be them." He said.
"For once I agree with you Rav." Elentari said. Silver-Raven and Sora just stared at her blankly.
"What'd I say?" The female pirate asked, still not realising what she had said. Suddenly, a bell rang through the large entrance hall; dozens of children wearing black robes stampeded through the foyer, the pirates did their best to dodge them all.
"What's going on?!" Silver-Raven cried out as he was pushed to the ground by a gang of teenagers, who then proceeded to trample all over him. Elentari growled and shoved the kids out of her way just as they were about to collide with her. Sora, on the other hand, hadn't been touched by the wave of students, since she had stepped behind the suit of armour. After the mad dash had stopped, Sora laughed and helped a battered and bruised Silver-Raven to his feet.
"You ok?" She asked, trying to stop laughing. Elentari was doubled over with laughter as she pointed at Silver-Raven who, with great irritation, dusted himself off and glared at her.
"What just happened?" He asked, looking at Sora. Elentari wiped away the tears that had formed in her eyes from laughing so hard and walked over to them.
"That was the bell; it just tells the students when to go to their next class." Sora said. The other two pirates nodded in response.
"Does that…attack…happen all the time?" Elentari asked. Sora nodded and started walking down a nearby corridor.
"Yeah, some of the teachers like having the students in class a few minutes early and they punish those who aren't." She replied.
"Where are we going?" Silver-Raven asked. Sora stopped outside a classroom door and looked around, the corridor was empty.
"I have a class to teach right now…you guys can come in if you like or you can stay out here." She said, looking back at the two pirates.
"I'll come in with you." Her boyfriend said gleefully, as if there was something exciting about class. Sora nodded and looked at Elentari for her answer.
"I'll stay out here…I can take a look around the place."
"Ok, that book we read…the inscriptions on it are the same as books I've seen around here. But I can't find the one we need anywhere…" Sora started to say.
"So you want me to break into the student's rooms and look for the book?" Elentari asked excitedly, cutting Sora off from what she was saying.
"I was about to say for you to look around the library, I haven't had much time to look properly, but that sounds ok too…as long as you don't get caught." Sora warned. Elentari nodded and was about to run off down the corridor when she remembered something.
"Where are the library and the dorms?" She asked.
Sora told her. Elentari nodded and ran off. Sora smiled at Silver-Raven and opened the door to the classroom before entering.
"Uh Sora," Silver-Raven asked after Elentari had left, "What are the chances of Ele finding the library and dorms? I mean we both know she's not the universe's greatest pathfinder."
"Well, in all honesty even the universe's greatest pathfinder would have difficulty in finding them first time." Sora replied.
"How come?"
"This castle has 142 staircases, hidden passages, fake doors, ghosts…"
"Did you just say ghosts?"
Sora mentally kicked herself, before sighing, "Yes."
Surprisingly Silver-Raven appeared to stay calm, "So, in short, this is one crazy place."
"That's one way of looking at it, yes." She answered, relieved.
"So why did we send Ele off looking for books when she won't find the rooms?" Silver-Raven asked crossly.
"She will find them…if she's got enough sense to ask someone."
"And if they've got enough sense to triple check their replies."
Sora nodded but their discussion was cut off as students began flooding into the classroom.
Elentari was already lost. She had got lost not long after going up the marble staircase in the entrance hall. The door she had been supposed to go through to get to the library would not open. She had walked up and down the corridor several times until a student walked by and pushed the wall to the left of it.
"Trick door." He said before walking off.
Elentari stood wide-eyed for a moment, then slipped into the corridor behind the closing door.
Ele finally returned to Sora's classroom half an hour after the final day's lesson had finished.
"Where have you been?" Silver-Raven scolded as Elentari fell through the doorway.
Elentari glared at him. "I have been looking for that blasted book."
"Did you find it?" Sora asked.
Ele shook her head.
"Did you even find the library?" Rav groaned.
A moment later Rav found himself pinned to the floor by Elentari, her remaining blade dangerously close to his throat.
"I found it alright," she growled, "I just spent the last three hours trying to find my way back here after getting trampled on by those brats more times than I care about."
Silver Raven gave Sora a pleading look.
She sighed, "Ele, let him up."
Elentari looked annoyed but allowed Silver-Raven to get up.
"Did you check the dorms?" Rav asked. He moved rapidly so that Sora was between him and Ele when he saw the anger rise in her eyes again.
"Those dorms are the reason I spent so long getting back here," she snarled at him. "There are four of them you know."
"Ele, calm down a bit; Rav, stop questioning her." Sora intervened. "You only needed to check one dorm, Ele. Sorry, I forgot."
Elentari still looked a little cross but she managed to keep her temper in check.
"Ok, what now?"
"Food."
The two female pirates looked at Rav.
"What? I'm hungry."
Shaking her head at the simplicity of her boyfriend, Sora motioned them out of the classroom to the Great Hall, in time for dinner.
Silver-Raven burst through the Great Hall doors, practically drooling from hunger, only to be met by a blue translucent figure dressed in middle-age clothing. He screamed and cowered behind Elentari, who wasn't far behind him. Sora laughed and looked at the figure.
"Hi Sir Nicholas, how's things?" The ghost smiled and floated towards her.
"Very good, Sora; and yourself?"
"Doing good, this is my boyfriend, Silver-Raven." She replied, motioning to the trembling male. "And this is my friend, Elentari." Ele stared at Sir Nicholas and raised an eyebrow.
"What are you, a hologram?" The spectre stared at her curiously.
"Hologram?"
"He's a ghost, the man's dead, Ele." Sora whispered to her friend, who looked at Sir Nicholas with wide eyes.
"Well, I must be off, good day to you all." He said, floating through Silver-Raven and down the hallway. Rav shivered and groaned.
"How many of them are there?"
"A few…" Sora replied, leading them to a table. They sat down and stared at the food in front of them.
"What crap is this??" Elentari practically yelled.
"I think I saw something move…is that a tentacle??" Rav exclaimed, holding his stomach.
"C'mon guys, it's not so bad when you get used to it." Sora said, piling up her plate.
"They said the same thing about those Glormann meatballs at Proxima Centauri…" Her boyfriend replied. Elentari looked at him and swallowed hard.
"Are those the things that gave everyone sonic diarrhoea??"
"Yeah, that was a crazy few months."
"Guys, keep your voices down, these people have never heard of Proxima Centauri, Glormann meatballs or sonic diarrhoea; they'll think your some kind of bizarre basket-cases." Sora whispered. Ele muttered and poked her food with her fork.
"Like they can judge…"
"I swear, if my food looks at me funny again I'll-" Rav was cut off by Professor Dumbledore.
"Students, we have visitors to our school today. Don't worry; they are not inspectors, but friends of our newest teacher, Professor Sora Carlyle."
"Professor??" Ele asked Sora, who laughed lightly and scratched the back of her head.
"Yeah…I had to say that, otherwise I couldn't get a job here and I'd be stuck in the woods out there." They proceeded to eat after Professor Dumbledore greeted Silver-Raven and Elentari, well everyone else did; Rav and Ele just stared at their food, convinced it was staring back.
After dinner had finished, Sora showed her to the room where she'd be staying for their unplanned visit.
"So it's a single room?" Elentari asked. Sora nodded in response and opened the chamber door. "Good, I aint sharing a room with some magic-freak."
"They aren't all so bad, Ele, some are actually a good laugh." Elentari walked into her room and sat on the bed, bouncing lightly.
"I don't care, I wouldn't want to share a room with someone who could turn me into a slug as I sleep." Sora laughed and shook her head.
"Nah, that'd only happen with Slytherin, you might want to watch out for them."
"Bad guys?"
"You could say that. Well I'd better go; us teachers have to be up hours before the students."
"Ok, see ya tomorrow." Sora nodded and waved before leaving the room. She walked down the hallway and entered her room, where Silver-Raven was waiting for her.
"This is a nice place you got here, much better than the rooms on the ship."
"Thanks." Sora replied. "Come with me, I have to show you something."
"Can't you show me here? I have blisters from so much walking." Rav whined. Sora grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room.
"No, I have to show you where Gryffindor's dorm room is, that's the first place we should search for that book." She let Rav go and he followed her, cautiously eyeing the suits of armour that lined the walls. Suddenly, one of the suits stepped out in front of them. Rav froze in sheer terror and the phantom knight casually walked by them.
"Are they trying to scare me or what??" He yelled, once the suit of armour had turned a corner.
"By the looks of things, they don't need to try." Sora answered as she continued walking.
"Oh very funny." Rav replied, following her. After what felt like hours of walking, they reached the stairwell leading up to Gryffindor House. Silver-Raven stared at the changing staircases. "How are we supposed to get up there??"
"It's easy, you just have to wait for the right piece of staircase. I should be getting back, it's up to you to get in there any way you can, without breaking anything. Oh, and the door is password-encoded. When you get in, look for a kid named Harry Potter." Rav nodded and stared up at the ever-changing staircases. Sora kissed him on the cheek and began walking back to her room.
After an hour or so of hopping staircases, Silver-Raven finally reached the Gryffindor House entrance. Looking around with a bemused look on his face, he ran his hands over the doors.
"Where's the keypad? Sora said it was password-encoded." Scratching his head, he decided it must be voice-activated. "Uh…door, open?"
Nothing.
"Open sesame?"
Still nothing.
"Woozle wazzle??"
More nothing.
"Open up you dumb piece of crap!!"
Yet more nothing.
Fuming, Rav stormed back down the stairs and back to Elentari's room. He banged on the door loudly.
"Ele! Open up!!" Groaning, Elentari groggily got out of bed and picked up her blade.
"He'd better have a good explanation…" She muttered before opening the door. "…What?"
"I need your hoverboard."
"What? Why?" She looked suspiciously at him
"To get into some house."
"Look, you are not using my stuff for crime!"
"No you idiot…" Finding Ele's blade close to his throat once more, Silver-Raven chose a different set of words. "No, Ele, Sora told me to get into one of the houses here to find that book to take us home."
"Oh, ok…you still can't have it." Elentari replied, taking the blade away from her friends' throat.
"C'mon! I promise I wont damage it." Ele sighed irritably and nodded.
"Ok, but if it has one scratch on it, you're dead." She said, grabbing her hoverboard and handing it to him.
"Thanks!" Rav yelled before running across her room to the window to open it.
"Hey! What d'you think you're…mmmff!" Rav's hand across her mouth cut Elentari off in mid yell.
"Quietly, idiot. You wanna wake up the entire castle?" He asked.
Turning on Ele's hoverboard, with an unexpected display of speed, Rav removed his hand and flew out of the window, leaving Elentari's blade, which should have pinned him, firmly embedded in the window frame.
Elentari shook with silent anger as Rav circled the castle looking for the Gryffindor dorms.
TBC…
R&R